


Withered Fields

by RynLangley



Series: Greener Pastures AU [1]
Category: Undertale
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempted Murder, Character Death, Don’t copy to another site, Drought, Gen, Hopeful endings, Mentions of Starvation, Minor Character Death, Misunderstanding, Origin Story, Violence, companion fic, farming, my version of the HorrorFarm boys, no fontcest I will sue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-06 11:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19061974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RynLangley/pseuds/RynLangley
Summary: This is a companion piece to my fic series, Greener Pastures. It shows how Butch and Sunny ended up wandering for a new home.This isn’t fluffy like the other fics, so please mind the tags!





	1. Clear Skies

**Author's Note:**

> Butch: Horror Sans  
> Sunny: Horror Papyrus

     Butch looked up the bright blue sky above his head and frowned. The rains were late this year. Normally, there’d be a huge downpour by the first day of planting, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! It’d been at least a month since their last big rain, and it was getting a little dry in the garden. _Oh well_ , he thought, _I’m sure it’ll rain by the weekend._

     He had been very wrong. It’s been almost 2 weeks since his prediction, and the clouds were still nowhere to be seen. On top of that, it’d been unusually hot this week and he was starting to use way more water than usual on the seedlings. The nice bunny monster next door was barely able to leave her house because of the overwhelming heat, and several of the guys at the bar were talking about setting out for greener pastures before things got even worse. He hoped they were wrong, but a tiny part of him feared the worst.

     It had been several months since the last rains, and things were looking bad. Because of the harsh sun, most of the little sprouts shriveled and died. The wild animals nearby had all left to find water, so there was little meat to be found now. Lately, the river had gotten to such a low level that it was near impossible to have water that wasn’t full of sediment. Butch was trying to remain positive, but the food stores were dwindling, and he was beginning to regret not listening to the old guys at the bar.


	2. Scorched Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get worse before they get better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for character death offscreen and violence 
> 
> The paragraphs are short and disjointed to show quick snippets of the time that’s passed.

     Butch came home to find his brother crying in the kitchen.   
“What’s wrong, bro?” Sunny looked up and rubbed his eyes. He spoke in a shaken voice.

“BonBon Fell Down today. Friend of hers said she was going on about not being able to keep doing this when nothing was ever going to change. Went over today to have breakfast with her and-” Butch stood there in shocked sadness. The young bunny was the most cheerful monster he knew. He grabbed his brother and held him as he burst into tears once again.

     A year. It had now officially been a year since the last rain, and hope seemed as hard to find as clean water. The once full village was now home to only a few. Between the drought and the lack of food, villagers were becoming hostile in their search for supplies. The town guard had to be called together to start rationing what little there was to be found. Stars help the person who tried to cheat the system. Poor Sunny accidentally grabbed the wrong ration bag from the guards one week. He apologized profusely but was silenced by the butt of a spear that a guard slammed into his face. His teeth had been shattered horribly, and it took forever for him to feel brave enough to leave the house.

  
     Butch’s nap was interrupted by the sound of his brother’s shout. He ran towards Sunny’s voice and found him in the front yard surrounded by several angry monsters. His clothing was ripped in places and tears were streaming down his face as he tried to make himself as small as possible.

“Please, just leave me alone, I haven’t done anything to you!” He cried out as one of the monsters slammed their tail into his side. The large snake monster reared up accusingly.

“You took it, didn’t you?! I left some food here and now it’s gone, and I know you’re a damned thief!” A flame monster with several children yelled as she brandished a broom at the scared skeleton. He cried out again and tried to swat the handle away.

“No! I just came by to see if there was anything in the garbage, I haven’t done anything else,” he replied.

     Butch ran up and got between the crowd and his brother. He stared down the group, screaming at them for harming his brother and threatening to fight the snake monster. After a tense few minutes, the crowd dispersed, and he turned to check on his brother.

“Hey, you okay, Sunny? They didn’t hurt ya too bad did they?”   
“I’m okay, brother. I was able to stop most of-LOOK OUT!”

He heard a cracking noise, and his vision went dark as a hoe was slammed against his skull by one of the fire monsters. Without thinking, he grabbed Sunny’s arms and teleported.


	3. Rainbows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, the final chapter of this little segment!

     Everything hurt.  He was worn out, and it felt like his head was full of cotton.  Water was dripping onto his face from somewhere.  Was it finally raining?  He opened his eyes, only to wince at the bright light that assaulted his eye sockets.  As his vision swam into focus, he noticed the tears pouring down Sunny’s face.

“Oh thank goodness you’re awake!  You’ve been out for a while now, I was worried,” he had a relieved look on his face as he rubbed his hand across Butch’s battered skull. 

“Sunny?  What happened?  I remember an argument, but not much else.”  Sunny sniffed and wiped his eyes.

“You were hit over the head with a hoe, then teleported us away from danger.  I have no idea where we are, but at least it’s shady.” Butch began to try and sit up.  “Please be careful!  I was able to heal most of the damage, but your head is still pretty messed up.”  Curious, Butch reached up to touch his head.  His eyelights went out in shock as he felt the back of his skull.  A jagged crack started at the top left side of his skull and ended in a small hole with jagged edges near the top center.  Sunny noticed his discomfort and quickly spoke up.

“I-it’s not as bad as you might think!  I was able to close up most of it, but I ran out of energy.  I’m sorry!” Butch cupped Sunny’s jaw in his hand.

“Hey now, none of that, you did an excellent job, bro.  I’m just a little surprised, but it really doesn’t hurt all that much anymore.  Thank you so much for saving me,” he bumped their foreheads together gently, then began to stand.  “Looks like we’re on the edge of a forest.  Not sure where we are exactly, but it’s bound to be better than the hell we left, right Bro?”  Sunny smiled and stood beside him, then suddenly gasped.

“BROTHER LOOK!”  Above the trees, large dark clouds had formed.  They shouted happily as the rain poured over them.  Butch flinched for a second as rain began to fill his wounds, but he was too happy to care.  The two of them slowly began making their way through the forest with a renewed sense of hope, their eyes never straying from the beautiful sight above them. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then they end up finding a new home with much nicer people! 
> 
> I know a few people wanted to see how my version of the Horror brothers got where they were when they met Sprout. I figure they'd have the same kind of background with hunger and people turning towards a 'by any means necessary' mentality. I hope I did them justice! Now, back to your regularly scheduled fluff over at [Greener Pastures](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18709441/chapters/44373640)


End file.
